+44 (0) 207 332 5400

+44 (0) 207 332 5400

An application for the judicial review in a case involving search warrants that had been sought in connection with criminal proceedings in the Crown Court.

Summary

The case concerned an application for the judicial review of search warrants that had been sought in connection with criminal proceedings in the Crown Court. The Chief Constable of Cheshire, on whose behalf the application for the warrants had been made, accepted that they were unlawful and an undertaking had been provided in the Crown Court that no reliance would be placed on any of the material seized, as part of the prosecution case. The Chief Constable felt compelled to explore alternative mechanisms to secure the material lawfully.

Arguments were heard on the appropriate timing of an application under section 59 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, which allowed for material that been unlawfully seized to be retained. The Claimant argued that the ordinary course to be adopted was that any application under section 59 CJPA should always await the determination in judicial review proceedings.

Result

The Court found that there is no general rule, as the Claimants had sought to show, that the power under section 59 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 should be exercised only after a final determination in any parallel judicial review challenge to the warrant.

The order in which proceedings take place should be determined by the circumstances and factual situation presented to the court at the time. There are cases in which it is convenient and appropriate for judicial review proceedings to be determined before a section 59 application is heard but there are also occasions when it is appropriate in the interests of justice to adopt a different course. This was one such example, particularly as the underlying activity was accepted and the seizing judicial authority wished to pursue such an application.

Jessica Franklinis a barrister specialising in criminal law. She has experience in a broad range of offences including violent and sexual crime, dishonesty offences and fraud, possession and supply of drugs, public order and road traffic offences.